A blog devoted to all things related to running in Brooklyn. It's designed to provide information and help us all get better while we learn about the people we pass while running in Prospect Park, over the Brooklyn Bridge or down to Coney Island. Comments/thoughts/announcements can be sent to brooklynrunning(at)gmail.com.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Brooklyn Half: Rave and Rants, Comment Away

OK, back from the Brooklyn Half (and an unavoidable trip to the Bronx following the race, so I feel for the Bronx commuters today).

I'll start pulling together some stuff, including my own race experience, other blogs, and a look at some of the numbers (only 7,006 finishers this year, down from 9,641 last year. Obviously there's a back story here .,.. probably tied into the registration mess.)

What'd you think? How was the organization at the beginning? Enough water? (God the humidity stunk). Still like the course: PPark to Coney Island? Anyone jump in the surf at the end?

NYRR has pretty much ruined this event. Yes, it was run without much of a hitch, but was it a good half, no, hardly.

The race used to be the fastest course during the year, but now it's definitely slower. Prospect Park is too small/narrow to handle the masses, and to run the big hill twice does not bode well for fast times. When the course was reversed, there were 6 miles along Ocean Parkway to let the masses thin out on the really wide street before hitting the park. Once in the park, the crux of the race was hitting the top of the hill and then it was a long decent to the finish. Fast. Easy. Not anymore.

The finish was a bit of a joke. The last 100m of the Chute into the finish was like a choking point with no width - can't imagine what it was like when masses came in fighting for elbow room. Once finished, yes there was water/gatorade, bagels, and bananas, but a bottle of water would have been nice - sometimes you just don't want to drink the moment you finish, and it wasn't like there was any water by the baggage area, so if you missed the initial fluid tables, you were out of luck. If bottles were given out, I haven't a clue where to have found them.

I don't care if they give out medals or not, but a half is a half, and some people come from out of town may not know that NYRR doesn't treat their 5-Borough series any different than the little races. Just saying...

I'll admit the shirts were actually quite good, but as my wife found out, the small is still too large. And this isn't something new... Why not have XS shirts for women that are tiny... Again, just saying....

And lastly, at least when the race finished in Prospect Park, there was an entire assortment of restaurants in Park Slope to eat at. Maybe there were places in Coney Island, but from what I saw, it was mainly Hotdogs, Pizza, Beer, and funnel cakes. Umm, yeah, pass on that. My days of the college diet at 9am are long over.

Then again, why should I have expected much from the NYRR??? It's not like they brought in close to $200k with this race... Oh wait, they did, didn't they.